Sifting through countless of stocks in the Capital Markets industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in The Charles Schwab Corporation or LPL Financial Holdings Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how The Charles Schwab Corporation and LPL Financial Holdings Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About The Charles Schwab Corporation and LPL Financial Holdings Inc.

The Charles Schwab Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a savings and loan holding company that provides wealth management, securities brokerage, banking, asset management, custody, and financial advisory services in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Investor Services and Advisor Services. It offers brokerage accounts with equity and fixed income trading, margin lending, options trading, futures and forex trading, and cash management capabilities, including money market funds, and certificates of deposit; third-party mutual funds through the Mutual Fund Marketplace and Mutual Fund OneSource service, as well as mutual fund trading and clearing services to broker-dealers; exchange-traded funds; advisory solutions for managed portfolios, separately managed accounts, customized personal advice for tailored portfolios, specialized planning, and full-time portfolio management; banking products comprising checking and savings accounts, first lien residential real estate mortgage loans, home equity lines of credit, and pledged asset lines; and trust custody services, personal trust reporting services, and administrative trustee services. It provides digital and software based trading platforms; research tools, and multichannel support, real-time market data, options trading; equity compensation plan sponsors full-service recordkeeping for stock plans, stock options, restricted stock, performance shares, and stock appreciation rights; retirement plan services; mutual fund clearing services; and advisor services, including interactive tools and educational content. The Company operates through branch offices. The Charles Schwab Corporation was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Westlake, Texas.

LPL Financial Holdings Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides an integrated platform of brokerage and investment advisory services to independent financial advisors and financial advisors at institutions in the United States. The company’s brokerage offerings include variable and fixed annuities, mutual funds, equities, fixed income, alternative investments, retirement and 529 education savings plans, and insurance; and client cash programs consist of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insured bank sweep vehicles, and a client cash and money market account. It also provides fee-based platforms that provide access to mutual funds, exchange traded funds, stocks, bonds, certain options strategies, unit investment trusts, institutional money managers, and no-load multi-manager variable annuities. In addition, the company offers retirement solutions for commission and fee-based services that allow advisors to provide brokerage services, consultation, and advice to retirement plan sponsors. Further, it provides other services comprising tools and services that enable advisors to maintain and grow their practices; trust, investment management oversight, and custodial services for estates and families; an advisor-facing trading and portfolio rebalancing platform; insurance brokerage general agency services; and technology products, including proposal generation, investment analytics, and portfolio modeling. The company was formerly known as LPL Investment Holdings Inc. and changed its name to LPL Financial Holdings Inc. in June 2012. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. was founded in 1989 and is based in San Diego, California.

Latest Capital Markets and The Charles Schwab Corporation, LPL Financial Holdings Inc. Stock News

As of July 2, 2026, The Charles Schwab Corporation had a $168.7 billion market capitalization, compared to the Capital Markets median of $3.1 million. The Charles Schwab Corporation’s stock is down 2.9% in 2026, up 8.5% in the previous five trading days and up 6.4% in the past year.

Currently, The Charles Schwab Corporation’s price-earnings ratio is 19.3. The Charles Schwab Corporation’s trailing 12-month revenue is $24.8 billion with a 38.0% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 15.8%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $6.185 per share for the current fiscal year. The Charles Schwab Corporation currently has a 1.3% dividend yield.

As of July 2, 2026, LPL Financial Holdings Inc. had a $23.6 billion market cap, putting it in the 87th percentile of all stocks. LPL Financial Holdings Inc.’s stock is down 17.4% in 2026, up 6.4% in the previous five trading days and down 20.87% in the past year.

Currently, LPL Financial Holdings Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 26.3. LPL Financial Holdings Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $17.8 billion with a 5.0% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 35.0%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $23.250 per share for the current fiscal year. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. currently has a 0.4% dividend yield.

How We Compare The Charles Schwab Corporation and LPL Financial Holdings Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at The Charles Schwab Corporation and LPL Financial Holdings Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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The Charles Schwab Corporation and LPL Financial Holdings Inc. Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
The Charles Schwab Corporation	SCHW	A
LPL Financial Holdings Inc.	LPLA	D

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

The Charles Schwab Corporation has a Growth Score of 83, which is Very Strong. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a Growth Score of 40, which is Weak.

The Growth Grade Winner: The Charles Schwab Corporation

As you can clearly see from the Growth Grade breakdown above, The Charles Schwab Corporation has a more attractive growth grade than LPL Financial Holdings Inc.. For investors who focus solely on how a company is growing relative to other companies in the same industry, The Charles Schwab Corporation could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

The Charles Schwab Corporation and LPL Financial Holdings Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
The Charles Schwab Corporation	SCHW	D
LPL Financial Holdings Inc.	LPLA	C

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

The Charles Schwab Corporation has a Quality Score of 40, which is Weak. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a Quality Score of 47, which is Average.

The Quality Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither The Charles Schwab Corporation or LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a high enough Quality Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if The Charles Schwab Corporation or LPL Financial Holdings Inc. is the better investment when it comes to quality.

The Charles Schwab Corporation and LPL Financial Holdings Inc.’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
The Charles Schwab Corporation	SCHW	C
LPL Financial Holdings Inc.	LPLA	D

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

The Charles Schwab Corporation has a Momentum Score of 42, which is Average. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a Momentum Score of 26, which is Weak.

The Momentum Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither The Charles Schwab Corporation or LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a strong enough Momentum Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if The Charles Schwab Corporation or LPL Financial Holdings Inc. is the better investment when it comes to momentum.

Other The Charles Schwab Corporation and LPL Financial Holdings Inc. Grades

In addition to Momentum, Growth and Quality, A+ Investor also provides grades for Value and Estimate Revisions.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection. Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether The Charles Schwab Corporation and LPL Financial Holdings Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, The Charles Schwab Corporation or LPL Financial Holdings Inc. Stock?

Overall, The Charles Schwab Corporation stock has a Growth Score of 83, Momentum Score of 42 and Quality Score of 40.

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. stock has a Growth Score of 40, Momentum Score of 26 and Quality Score of 47.

Comparing The Charles Schwab Corporation and LPL Financial Holdings Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.